Receive and Live In the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 Where we are going, not one generation can reach. I must go as far as I can go. I must enter into everything that is possible for me to enter into and then pass it off so that the next generation could go as far as they can possibly go. What God is doing in the earth right now is going to take a multi-generation of migration into the things of God. I'm really happy to be able to talk to you about revival. My problem is I've got about a thousand things running through my brain that I want to say, and that could actually torture you. And I don't want to do that, so we'll try to keep it simple and focused. The heart of God is for, use any term you want, renewal, revival, awakening, all those things are similar. similar, but they are unique. Revival historically has been a time where there's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. His presence and his works become very pronounced in a dominant way.

1:08 They dominate church life and eventually culture itself. I personally believe that God has intended revivals to never end. I know that the studies of revival that I've seen, they all, they basically declare that revivals are seasonal and that they are to give kind of a boost to the church in that particular season so they can go for a period of time without. And the reason that conclusion has been made is because every revival has worked that way. In other words, we've come to the conclusion on God's heart for revival by studying revival and not studying God's heart. God's heart is he moves from glory to glory. Everything is progressive. So the scripture, Old Testament teaches God lights the fire on the altar, but it's the priests that keep it burning. God lights the fire. He's the one. Revival is in his heart, the fire of God to burn in the heart of his people to impact the church, eventually impacting society. And that's the heart of God in every great move of God. But oftentimes, revivals get cut short for so many reasons.

2:23 Sometimes extraordinary things happen, and miracles and supernatural encounters and whatever, and the people of God start thinking it's a badge of honor for them. They start taking it to themselves, if you will, that they have brought this great move of God instead of giving him all the glory. And anytime we take the glory to ourself, we cut short everything that he intended to do. Sometimes it gets cut short because of the competition that takes place between churches and ministries. There's a lot of reasons. I don't want to go into those so much right now. I just want to say that I believe that God's heart is that a move of God would come into an individual that would affect a church, that would affect a city, that would impact a nation. God's intention in every revival is to truly bring about a reformation where culture itself has changed.

3:20 And I'd like to say that the ingredients for transformation are in every move of God, the ingredients. For example, when we first, Benny and I and the kids first came here to Reading, one of the things that I did is I went to Argentina because I wanted to, I had heard for so many years about the great move of God that was in that wonderful nation, and I wanted to go see for myself. So I joined with Randy Clark, and we went down, I think goodness, I think it was like 19-day long trip. It was a long one. And we spent time in Brazil, then went over into Argentina, and I wanted to see what was happening there. I wanted to take a measurement, if you will, and see if it was similar to what was happening here. And a lot of experiences, but we'll boil it down to this. I realized that there was like, if I can make this illustration, it was like a ripe red apple.

4:17 And what was happening in Redding was an apple that just started to grow. It's not something you would want to eat. It was very tart, very bitter in taste, but it was growing. The point is both are 100% apple. Both are 100% apple. And sometimes we abort moves of God because they aren't what we read in a book somewhere. We measure this to that and we disqualify. The Lord warns us about despising the day of small beginnings. Oftentimes we pray great prayers and appropriate prayers. Let me use a metaphor. We pray for the oak tree God gives us in acorn. There's an oak tree in the acorn, and there's millions of acorns in that oak tree. The point is stewarding the moment God gives us is what takes us into the breakthroughs that we've all read about, that we all long for.

5:13 It starts very simple. It starts with that tug on your heart that happens in your home. It's not in a great meeting somewhere. There's not miracles happening right and left. There's that response to the person of the Holy Spirit where we become drawn into this place where we want to give everything for him to be glorified. Those moments are revival moments. Those are moments that usher us in to more extravagant breakthrough. And the heart of God is to change the nations of the world. The heart of God is twofold. It's the salvation of souls, but also to change the culture in which generations are being raised, that they would be raised in a culture that has a bent towards righteousness, that has a bent towards depending on God, seeking God, calling out for his intervention. And that's what the Lord is working in you and in me, is this increased awareness of his heart.

6:16 Revival is basically the heart of God made manifest. It's where we see more clearly, oh, this is what's important to him. And we find ourselves, it was funny back in 1996, 97, it was almost like you could tell what family was really in revival because their hair was messed up, their clothes hadn't been washed in a while, their lawn had been grown because it was like every moment we could, we wanted to be in the house to see what God was doing. I love that. I love that. But what is important to remember is that we have to know how to take that which God does in the corporate setting and learn how to translate it practically into society so that we live as revivalists in society. Let me illustrate. We've seen through the years, we've seen so many unusual but powerful encounters that people have had with the Lord. And there are times where the presence of God becomes so manifest and an individual that sometimes they weren't even seeking the Lord. They just happened to be in the room where God shows up. And I saw this happen with Cal Pierce, one of our elders many years ago. And the Lord literally chose him, apprehended him and changed his life in about a 45 minute encounter where he knew nothing else but God. He was aware of nothing else but God in his heart for him. Extraordinary. But these moments, the heart of an individual is so arrested, if you will, for divine purpose that he came out of that wanting nothing but to please God, nothing but to honor God, nothing but to celebrate God. And what we've watched through the years is these encounters change us on the inside. So let me just illustrate. So we have, let's say, a woman who's just really struggling with life. The power of God comes upon her. She falls to the ground, which sometimes happens. And God has a habit of doing things that are offensive to our minds. And she falls to the ground and she trembles under the power of God for two hours.

8:23 The problem is, is we tend to think that manifestation is what's needed for revival. Now, I'm not opposed to it. I celebrate it because I've watched, I've seen enough of that through the years to know that God is doing an internal work through an external manifestation. The challenge is, let's say she works down at Costco. The goal for many people would get people to fall in Costco and shake for two hours on the ground. That's not translating revival. Translating revival says, I was so encountered by God that I have lost the fear of man. I have an element of courage in me that I've never had before. So now where she works, as a manager, she no longer cowers to inferior decisions, but she's able to stand strong and make bold decisions. That's how you translate revival. You translate what happens in the house in a way that is beneficial to culture, beneficial to society. It's vital that we protect what God is doing in the house. We don't want to make the unusual experiences. That's not the message.

9:28 The message is Jesus. But I will say this. Most ever revival introduces a new... a new reason to be offended. just read just read you know it's it's easy to look back and say oh john wesley what a great man george whitfield what a great man um to look through all these heroes of the faith you know and to champion smith bogusworth but all of them were very opposed in fact they had they had people that were as famous as they were in the day that they lived so you know in fact i've got a name here. We know of Charles Finney. How many of you know of Charles Finney? Do you know the name John Nevin? Probably not, but he was the opponent to Charles Finney. We don't know John Nevin today. You could find out about him, but his name isn't promoted because history does not treat the critics of revival well. Tragically, in the moment of a great move of God, the critic is as popular as is the revivalist. I found a quote, actually, I found a quote here recently by a gentleman named Blaise Pascal, and he's a French mathematician, inventor, and Catholic theologian.

10:57 And this guy made this statement that has really become meaningful for me because I've seen this played out in life. He said, there's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition. Let me read it again. There's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition. I've watched through the years that the Lord will manifest in a unique way and for those who are hungry those who want nothing but him they're not destroyed by the offense the element of offense in the early 1900s it was praying in tongues and the Catholic renewal it was the fact that God was moving powerfully with Catholics and Episcopals and more traditional churches. In the Jesus culture, Jesus people movement, it was the long hairs, the bare feet, that whole element brought a great offense to many people. In the Toronto outpouring, it was the laughter. God forbid we actually find ourselves to be happy, but that just brought great offense to so many people.

12:18 and every move of God has some element to cause the mind to be offended. I believe it's Paul Cain that said, God will offend your mind to reveal your heart. He will offend your mind to reveal your heart. And it's not as though the intellect is important. It's just the mind will never lead you into revival. You will never get there intellectually. See, we all love the concept of the peace that passes understanding. I was looking at that word this morning because I became fascinated, not for the message even, but I became fascinated with this. It says the peace that surpasses understanding. That word surpasses actually says it's elevated. It's almost like in a governmental role. It is so far superior. Peace is governmentally exalted and superior to all understanding. It's superior. It is intellectualism from God's perspective because it is a person. And if you want the peace that passes understanding, you have to give up your right to understand. And it's not a message now against the mind, against understanding, against wisdom. I believe in all those are some of my most favorite things is to understand stuff.

13:35 but I know by experience and I know as I read through history, the heart takes you where you need to go. It's the surrender of the heart. It's the yieldedness to the work of the Holy Spirit saying, God, I don't know what this is, but I am so hungry. I remember when I flew back to Toronto, we had had a wonderful visitation of the Lord in 1987 in Weaverville. And it followed a trip that I made with a number of our leaders, made to Anaheim, to the vineyard there. And John Wimber and his team, Blaine Cook and Brent Rue and a bunch of others, they had this conference there on signs and wonders. And I was so deeply impacted because they were equipping everybody to do it. And I knew I couldn't be the stadium person to do that. Didn't fit my gift mix or my personality. and so I was so hungry and I saw how practical it was for that group of people. And the teaching was the same, but their willingness to take risk was different. And I came home and miracles started right away. But I have to be honest with you, that visitation of God that was so extraordinary in 1987, it would come and it would lift. It would land and it would lift. It would come and it would go over the next seven or eight years. And I remember flying back to Toronto and I was praying because I heard there was a great move of God there.

15:01 And I remember praying on the way. I said, God, if you'll touch me again, I'll never change the subject. I'll never take what you're doing and add it to what we're doing. I will make what you're doing the only thing we do. That was my commitment then. That was my covenant with the Lord then. I went to Toronto. I was there for, I don't remember now, five, six days. And I didn't have any unique experiences. many great stories, people that I know, people all around that their lives were so dramatically changed. Mine was too, but it wasn't through some power encounter with God. It was the fact that I was immersed in a presence, in a glory realm of God that I knew this helped define the rest of my life. And I prayed and I said, God, I give you the rest of my life for this one thing. The move of God is something that is unnatural to not hunger for. Once you see it, once you see it, everything of Christ in you rises, awakens to say, that's why I'm alive. I was born for this. This is what I was born for. I remember that started in my heart. I've been tender to the Lord my whole life.

16:23 I remember receiving Christ as a child and I was always tender to the Lord, but I didn't have this passion for him. I didn't have this heart to seek him and to abandon everything, but there was a tenderness there. And I remember back in the days, I was probably 19 years old, 18, 19 years old, and Chip Worthington, who used to be a youth pastor here, and Winky Pratt, he didn't come here, but we heard his teachings and I would hear them talk about revival. And I didn't know what revival was, but something awakened in me in my late teen years that I could tell this, this is why I'm alive. And when I would hear the preaching of Mario Murillo and the exhortation that he brought to a generation to give everything for Jesus, I did. I threw my hat in the ring and said, I just, I give you everything. From that moment on, I knew I am alive for revival. I am alive. for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to settle for what so many people have settled for. I don't want to settle. I don't want to think and say, well, let's just learn to manage what we have. One of the scariest stories in the Bible is the story of the talents that were given out. Talents, of course, are sums of money. And there was one, somebody was given five talents, another two, and another one. The scary part of the story is the guy that was given the one talent didn't use that money to make more money.

17:49 In other words, what he did was he took what he was given by God in this metaphor, what God gave him, and he took it and he protected it. I don't want to be found living in a place of trying to protect in a stationary position in life instead of moving on, seeing where this that God has given me could take me. I want to use what he's given me so that I step fully into what God says is possible in my lifetime.

18:18 I had a, yesterday, Benny and I were watching a documentary, which I don't watch. I probably should watch more documentaries, but I don't. I tend to watch, you know, spy movies and stuff like that. But anyway, we were watching this documentary and I had my iPad, which I usually do two things at once. I'm not a good multitasker, but I fake it, you know. we were watching this documentary on the migration of animals and insects. And there came this moment where I put the iPad down because something so captured my heart. I don't understand yet, but I feel it's deeply prophetic. I can feel it in my soul. As I was watching, they begin to show these monarch butterflies that are in this forest. I guess, in Mexico. They are there by the millions. They migrate from Mexico to Canada, but it takes four generations to get to Canada. A multi-generational migration.

19:30 Oh, goodness. How about lost in a multi-generational migration? it means the butterfly that hangs on that tree in Mexico that begins the migration to Canada starts flying and then they lay eggs and they have their you know their what do you call it the little worm in a cocoon and the butterfly lost for words here and there's another generation that takes on the journey and they go as far as they can go and they pass it on to the next one They die, the next generation takes it, until they get all the way to Canada. Four generations to make that several thousand mile journey. And then they're there in Canada, I guess it must be during the summer, and then they make the migration back to Mexico, four generations. Multi-generational migration.

20:25 Where we are going, not one generation can reach. man this is so strong in my heart right now not one generation can reach I must go as far as I can go I must enter into everything that is possible for me to enter into and then pass it off so that the next generation could go as far as they can possibly go knowing that they've got another generation that they'll have to pass it on to multi-generational what God is doing in the earth right now is going to take a multi-generational migration into the things of God, into the things of the kingdom, unlike any time we've ever seen. It's where every child grows up knowing they were born with divine purpose, and there is more. There is more. And it's not an insult to my forefathers to discover more. I'm only able because I stand on the platform of their breakthrough. I stand on the platform of their success.

21:25 this may sound a little strange to you, but my two favorite verses, they're at the top of the list anyway, favorite verses on revival are actually out of the book of Proverbs. I want to read them to you real quick. The first one is Proverbs 14, 4, and it says, where there's no oxen, the manger is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of the ox. that's revival. Where there's no revival, the manger's clean. But when you have a great move of God, get a shovel because it's always messy. There is no such thing as a squeaky clean revival. You only have that when you read it in history and they cleaned up the text and they removed all the offenses and all the problems.

22:29 People have done that through the years. The Shantung revival, a tremendous Baptist outpouring of the Holy Spirit in China. When they reprinted the story of that, they cleaned up all the messes so it was squeaky clean to the point it's boring. If you want the real thing, go to Randy Clark's website and get the story on the Shantung revival. Because it's extraordinary. God didn't remove the offensive parts of people's lives from the book. The difficult parts, the failures, but not just the failures, the things that actually cause problems for the people of God. The second verse that I find so intriguing is out of Proverbs 27, and another book that I consider a revival passage. It's chapter 27, and it's verse 7. A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet to a person who is full they become the restaurant critic and they despise even the sweetness of the honeycomb but a person who is hungry who is really hungry every bitter thing becomes sweet it's extraordinary because I've watched this through the years where people come into a move of God and they begin to critique it as though they were a restaurant critic instead of coming because they were hungry.

24:06 I'm not here to analyze the move of God. I'm here to be wrecked by the move of God. I'm here to be rearranged by the move of God. What happened in Wales in the early 1900s, 1904, oh my goodness, what a story. It's one of my favorite parts of all of human history. is what happened in that era. Evan Roberts, a bunch of young people, the outpouring of the Spirit became so strong, some of the major great godly men and women from England came into Wales to not analyze. I don't want to criticize them. They came in to see what God was doing. And this is their own testimony. It was such a holy movement. They felt they needed to leave to let the young people run with it. In other words, they would contaminate it with their expertise. Wow, what wisdom.

25:01 What wisdom to realize sometimes we need to just back off. Sometimes we need to back off. Jesus gave a warning about this. He said, don't try to pick the tares out from among the wheat, lest you destroy the wheat. Think about that. when God doesn't move, we oftentimes, especially us as leaders, we want to protect the people from errors, which we should. That's part of our job. We want to protect them from this extreme, this exaggeration. And while we always have our defenses up to make sure that we protect the people, Jesus also gives a warning. And he says, here's the thing about wheat and tares. They look the same. The only time you can tell a difference is when it's time to harvest, because the weight of the grains of wheat on the stem cause it to bow. And then the tares stand up straight.

25:54 So Jesus warns, he says, don't over-concern yourself with the tares, trying to pick out the wrong things because you'll pick out the wheat. You'll pick out the right things. This is a warning concerning, I believe, moves of God. Be careful that you don't become so controlling of your environment that you don't give room for God to step outside of what you approve of. Many people reject the move of God because they see God touch somebody else in a way he's never touched them. So in other words, I become the standard. My experience becomes the standard for how God can touch you. And it's one of the great mistakes. One of the great mistakes is that I judge what's happening in a room by my own experience, which is an arrogant posture to take. Because it comes with the notion saying, I've experienced everything first. And then he'll touch you according to how he's touched me.

26:53 It's just not the way it works. It comes to people that are poor in spirit. That are hungry like children. That just want more of God. They're not asking for everything to be explained. they come simply asking for a father to come to show up and to do what only he can do. Of course, there are souls saved. Of course, there are miracles in people's bodies, deliverances. I've seen it in this room where the power of God comes upon a person. I remember when the outpouring first started, just an unbeliever would come into the room and the power of God would literally capture them, capture them. They didn't know what was happening to them, but they would lay there and weep and weep and weep and just turn their heart towards the Lord, not knowing what was going on, but knowing that God had chosen them. I think sometimes we get accustomed to a gospel that we understand fully, which means a gospel that we can control.

28:01 It's about control. People say, well, this wouldn't happen when the Holy Spirit, in a move of God, because he teaches self-control. Self-control is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's control. First, you have to have the Holy Spirit's control before you learn self-control. It's giving ourself to the great, great work of God.

28:26 I want to read to you out of the book of Joel. I'm torn because there's so many places to go here, but let me at least, let's do this. I want to read to you out of Joel. I'm going to read to you out of chapter two, and then we're going to jump to Acts. All right. So if you've got your Bible before you, which I hope you do, get those two places ready. I was going to go to Acts 19 because it's outrageous and wonderful, but I just don't think I have time for it. So let's just do this today. We'll go to Joel 2, and then we're going to go to Acts 2. And I want to show you something. Let's start in Joel 2, verse 23. Be glad then, you children of Zion. Rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain faithfully. I think New American Standard says the former rain in vindication, which is interesting, that the Lord would vindicate us with his outpouring, vindicate us in our own personal wrong decisions in life, the areas where the enemy has stolen from us.

29:34 The outpouring comes to fully vindicate us, to display his faithfulness. He will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain. Rain in the scripture represents the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we see a little later in this chapter. So when you see rivers of water, you see pools of water talked about, you see rivers in the desert, you have rain. Those are all symbols of the work of the Holy Spirit and how manifestation of his presence. Jesus validates this in John chapter 7, where he refers to the Holy Spirit as a river. But look at this again. He will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain. So the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days that we live in. The latter days, the last days started in Acts chapter 2. So if those were the last days, these are really the last days. Then he goes into verse 28.

30:32 it will come to pass afterward. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. So it's both male and female. Your old men will dream dreams. Young men will see visions. So the age barrier is broken. And also on my men's servants and maid servants, I will pour out my spirit. So the class barrier is broken. So the outpouring of the Holy Spirit creates a level playing field for men, women, young, old, rich, poor. All of those boundaries are destroyed in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter 2, after Joel 2 was fulfilled, you see an interesting response from people. And if you've got your Bibles, look at Acts 2. It says in verse 6, this would be fun to study more at a later date, but right now, just look at verse six. When this sound occurred, this sound is not, I want to tell you now just in advance, this sound is not just a crowd of people praying in tongues. It is a heavenly roar that has broken into the city of Jerusalem where the entire city is hearing the open heaven over that city. It's a roar of God. And everybody in the city hears it. They all drop their tools, their toys or whatever they're doing. And thousands began to flock to this group of believers that are praying in tongues, praying in languages they don't understand. It says, verse six, when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, said they were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language. Then they were amazed and they marveled. It says in verse 11, We hear them speaking in our own tongues of the wonderful works of God.

32:25 So what was confusing was still had divine purpose. Verse 12, they were all amazed. They were perplexed. And verse 13, others were mocking. So here you got it. This is a good revival right here. They were amazed. They marveled. They were confused. They were perplexed. And there was mocking. That's how you have a move of God. you're not going to have a move of God without those elements present. There's always opposition to the move. And if you're a one who is bound by the fear of man, get the heart of God over the issue. Don't do guilt and shame, but let him touch you deep. Cry out for the more in the secret place. In the private place, we cry out for God. In public, we take risks. We look for problems. We look for places to serve. In quiet, alone with God, we cry out for the more. but in public. We look for opportunities for him to be displayed. When I went to Toronto, I've already explained, I didn't have a dramatic experience, at least my first time, as so many around me did. So many friends, so many people that I now know, their lives were changed.

33:36 It wasn't that. It was the fact that the Lord gave me a seed. He gave me a seed. He gave me the acorn instead of the oak tree I prayed for. And it would have been easy to put that aside and say, this is not revival. But I knew that in that seed, there was enough of God to radically change the rest of my life. I knew it. I knew it. I knew I was given a treasure of heaven, the pearl of great price. I knew it had been given to me. And it was small and it was nothing. It was nothing extravagant enough that I could walk around and show people. It wasn't that. It was I knew that he had given me what I had asked for. It was in seed form, but I had to cultivate it. And that began the season of day and night crying out for more, that God would cause this seed to grow, that he'd cause this that he entrusted to me, that maybe others would reject this that he entrusted to me. God, that you would cause this to grow, that you would impact our city, you would impact our church, impact my life, impact our nation.

34:48 I prayed day and night. I would wake up, I'd wake up in the middle of the night praying.

35:22 In other words, I was praying in my sleep, and I would actually wake myself up because my spirit man was so alive, so contending for all that God had promised, that I just, I find myself unable to sleep. I just wake up, find myself praying. I don't have time for the full story here, but that lasted for eight to nine months. And then the Lord met me. I ran faithfully with the seed, but then he met me at three in the morning and everything changed, everything changed. Everything changed. I think if you were to ask my friends from Weaverville, I think they would all tell you that I didn't struggle with the fear of man because I made courageous decisions.

36:33 I was willing to go against the grain. It wasn't a problem, but the Lord knew that there was still a seed of the fear of man in my heart. and he showed up in a way with such extreme power, three o'clock in the morning that lasted all night. And I had no control. It was the raw power of God, and I knew that he wanted to know if I meant it when I said, God, I want more of you at any cost, any cost. I'll pay any price. And he began to parade scenes in front of my eyes of me trying to communicate to the church, realizing there's nobody going to believe that this that I'm experiencing is actually God. The next scene, I was standing in front of my favorite restaurant in town, realizing not only am I going to be a point of laughter for the church, I'm going to be a person that is mocked in our community. And it was like the Lord was asking me this question, did you mean it when you said more at any cost? And I laid there with the tears going down my pillowcase. After about 20 minutes of seeing these scenes of what it would cost me, I said, yes, you can do anything you want with me. If I get you in the exchange, the increase, the manifestation of your presence, if I get that in the exchange, you can do anything you want with me.

38:05 I just believe God is... God is going to use this very strange season,

38:34 this pandemic, that we have such prime opportunities to be alone with God. We don't have the excuse of busy schedules. we don't have the excuse of too many responsibilities. We have who we are face to face with who he is.

39:02 And he wants to take you and he wants to take me. And he's positioning us for an extreme, mighty outpouring of the Spirit. Something that will actually affect the course of history for nations. It's been happening for a while, but I tell you what, it's on the edge right now. And it's about to break loose in a way we've never seen before. having said all of that I I know that there are many of of you as believers that just you just need to make the confession to the Lord God I'm all in do whatever you want with me and there are some I know that are watching you've never given your life to Jesus and this is probably the most awkward opportunity for me to ever say come to Jesus give your life to him be forgiven, brought into the family. Know what it is to walk as a child of God and truly give yourself that he would be glorified. But I'm going to ask you to do it right now. Just pray a simple prayer with me. Father, I come to you as a sinner. Pray it out loud right where you are. I come to you as a sinner. I need forgiveness. Please forgive me for all my sin. I turn to Jesus. I declare Jesus Christ is the Son of God, my Lord, my Master. I give myself completely for His glory.

40:34 Amen. Every believer just say, God, I give you everything I am to discover everything you are.